The Wheelie Pig

June 22, 2020

Article By: J. Ken Conte

Photos By: Justin George

Originally Published In The April 2019 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

These days Harley-Davidson is trying to get in front of more consumers. They want to reach not just the average person that rides motorcycles, they want to reach an entire generation that rides and what better way to get to the younger demographic than to sponsor the X-Games. They had some success with the summer X-Games and last year debuted a few Harley-Davidson specific events like the Harley-Davidson Hill Climb. Last year was a learning experience. They ran the bikes up the sides of the bottom of the halfpipe, which had an 18-degree slope. This made for fast and somewhat uneventful head-to-head races, with the winner being highly decorated Pro hill climber, Travis Whitlock. This year they upped the ante by changing the hill climb to the backside of the big air jumps. This gave the riders a very steep runway and two jumps that added a lot of excitement to the races.

Logan Lackey went big at the Winter X-Games by running his big twin Harley daily rider. Last year he was an alternate, but this year he had the opportunity to run with the big boys. He was the only competitor in the winter hill climb riding a big twin Harley. Not only that but this bike is his daily rider and the one that he uses when he stunt rides with Unknown Industries.

Of course, it had to be modified heavily to get it into shape to run up a very steep grade (some estimates were well above 40 degrees) in the freezing cold at altitude. “We switched it over to Horse Power Inc. fuel injection system so we could tune it with a computer instead of having to change out jets.” Said Lackey. The main adjustment they had to do was to lose weight on the bike. This was accomplished by removing everything that wasn’t essential and putting the lightest aftermarket parts on. That included BST carbon fiber wheels front and back that seemed to handle the cold and two jumps (albeit the landings were snow) and lightened up the front and rear of the bike considerably. The Brocks Performance 6 inch extended aluminum swingarm was essential to getting the kind of traction needed to hook up the custom made Skat-Trak paddle tire. Both front and rear suspension needed to be dialed into the conditions. Satya Kraus helped modify the Ohlins front end with his triple trees and risers. It needed to have maximum travel front and rear because the new course had two jumps and was steeper so getting the rear tire to hook up was essential. The rear shocks were also Ohlins and fully adjustable with tons of travel.

The power was supplied by a monster 120-inch JIMS motor as well as a Jims Fat 5 transmission to deliver it. Fat 28 provided a custom exhaust that was in keeping with the fact that this was a full custom motorcycle they had none other than Taylor Schultz lay down a fantastic green paint job. You can be sure that this was not just the only Big Twin that headed up the mountain but that it had the best (and probably only) custom paint job. Logan was definitely a crowd favorite this year, but his qualifying run had him running in the single elimination bracket against none other than the gold winner from last year, Travis Whitlock. Not only did Logan get beat that round but Travis Whitlock had the fastest time of the day. Logan’s run was good, but not good enough to move him into the next heat. I love this bike, because it is purpose built and customized but can easily be on the street again (ok maybe not easy). It hearkens back to the day when racers could afford only one bike and times were simpler. I hope we see more of this run whatchabrung, because that really is how motorcycle racing started.